Seend
Major Settlement in the Parish of Seend
Historical Forms
- Sinda 1190,1195 P
- Seinde 1194,1200 1235 Fees
- Seynde 1249 Ass 1553 WMx
- Scheynde 1283 Ipm
- Sende 1211 RBE 1227 FF 1322 Pat
- Sende juxta Divyses 1289 FF
- Senede 1279 Ass
- Seende 1330 Pat
- Syend 1541 LP
- Seene al. Seend 1602 Recov 1635 FF
- Sceene 1650 ParlSurv
- Send vulgo Seene 1670 Aubrey
- Sean 1675 Ogilby
Etymology
This is a difficult name. Topographically the site is a distinctive one. Seend is on the top of an isolated hill (an outcrop of iron-sand) which rises steeply up from the valley 150 ft. below. This makes it difficult to accept Ekwall's suggestion that it is named from Semington Brook supra 10. That stream is a mile and a half away and its old name is persistently Sem (e )net .Ekwall suggests that it had an alternative form Semned , but there is no evidence for such a form in this name and it would hardly explain the forms for Seend with their persistent final e . It should be noted further that semnet shows no such tendency to develop to seint in Semington infra 143.
It would seem therefore that the suggestion made in PN Sr 146, s. n. Send, that the name goes back to OE *sænde , 'sandy place,' is still the most likely explanation. The spellings in the Pipe Roll forms are difficult but the ei -forms are probably due to attempts to represent the e -vowel as lengthened before the consonant-group.